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When I visited Hitachi in February, they only embargoed one big announcement. Today I can finally tell you what that announcement was all about.

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Hitachi Power Tools will now be known as Metabo HPT in North America. You may have recently heard that Hitachi would be known as Hikoki. That will only be true in the European and Asian markets.

The transition will take place over the next two years and the first new tools launched under this name will be the new MultiVolt platform slated to come out in September 2018. At the same time, they plan on converting their fasteners and accessories to the new Metabo HPT name. Following in the next quarter, they want to finish converting the branding for all current tools.

During the transition period, all of the in-store signage and packaging will have both logos, emphasizing the transition from Hitachi to Metabo HPT.

The current Hitachi color scheme won’t change. Also, all Hitachi tools and accessory model numbers will stay the same, except an M will be added to the end. Fasteners will have an HPT added to the end of the model number.

The name change also won’t effect the warranty on your current Hitachi tools.

As you may have heard, Hitachi Koki, the parent company of Hitachi Power Tools, recently announced that it’s changing it’s name to Koki Holdings. Metabo HPT will be one of the brands Koki Holdings owns joining Metabo, Hikoki, and other companies like Tanaka.

Metabo HPT will be completely separate from Metabo, and so they will not share battery platforms or tools. They serve two different market segments. Metabo serves the metal working/industrial market segment while Metabo HPT serves the residential/multifamily construction market.

You might have noticed recently that Metabo has been trying to push into other US markets that would overlap with Hitachi, but Hitachi did not elaborate on how this new scheme would affect those efforts.

About Benjamen

Benjamen Johnson grew up watching his dad work as a contractor and woodworker. He became an electrical engineer and took an interest in woodworking. Check out Ben's projects at Ben's Workshop or follow him on twitter or instagram.

I think that this might be good news. Leveraged buyouts form equity firms like KKR can sometimes result in companies being split up, pieced out, sold off, loaded up with debt and/or pushed into bankruptcy (witness the Toys-R-Us situation). The fact that they are taking this re-branding step – indicates (IMO) that KKR has longer-term ideas for Hitachi and Metabo tools – beyond just milking the companies dry.

Hitachi as a whole is a keiretsu, or conglomerate (best available translation), not a corporation. Parts of it may be incorporated. Japanese companies are typically structured in this fragmented but co-ownership fashion to prevent corporate takeovers, limit outsider influence, and isolate liability.

I don’t see why, both companies make very decent products, and some of them are even category leaders. The main problem of both companies is more the fact that they aren’t as widely available as Dewalt, Milwaukee, Makita and Bosch. If they were just as popular, it wouldn’t be an issue. Just my 0.02$

I bought a Hitachi Brad nailer because I had heard so many good things….it is a piece of shit. The brads constantly get stuck under the slide, forcing you to force the damn thing open and reset. I have zero confidence that it drives a nail at all. I’m also not the only person to have that problem…

Weird. Hitachi and Max are the two best nailers I’ve used in any category. Never an issue whatsoever. Did you try different brads? I’ve had far more problems that were traced to bad fasteners (even from big names) than I have with quality guns.

I’ve been considering purchasing their C10RJ table saw since I can’t afford a cabinet table saw for home right now. Acme has it for $349 right now and I was hoping to possibly find slightly cheaper somewhere as Father’s Day approaches. This switching of brand names and the possibility of a liquidation sell off in the future scares me. Anyone have a suggestion for another brand at comparable price and right rip capacity (35 inches)?

I see that the Amazon $349 price does not include a blade.
I don’t see that as a deal breaker – because the blades that the manufacturers usually bundle in are of questionable quality for anything but rough work.
You may have to pay a it more – but invest in a better quality blade from Freud (or Forrest if your budget allows)

They will have to market this very clearly. I know lots of residential construction guys that love hitachi nailers but probably don’t know much about metabo. Also the non compatibility of the cordless tools will probably cause lots of confusion, too bad they can’t solve that somehow

“Metabo HPT will be completely separate from Metabo, and so they will not share battery platforms or tools. They serve two different market segments. Metabo serves the metal working/industrial market segment while Metabo HPT serves the residential/multifamily construction market.”

It might be a bad move, people are very tool loyal and changing the name might lose a lot loyal customers, take Milwaukee for instance say they changed the name to Hong Kong tools people would jump ship in a heartbeat

You bet Matt. Metabo grinders are class leaders. And at one time they made a pretty good jigsaw if I remember corectly. I do hope they can avoid the confusion two similar brand names couldmeadily create in the same market. I wonder what patents/trademarks/contracts or similar precipitated this? I wouldn’t think it was by choice.

I’ve used Hitachi drills and thought the ergonomics were great. The same reason I like Makita drills, ergonomics. I would have strongly considered Hitachi except that they are not widely available and don’t have the cordless tool line that Makita has. It’s too bad that they won’t make the new batteries interchangeable. Not a good sign for their cordless tools. Who is going to buy into a whole new line when other brands are more attractive due to so many other cordless tools to add on.

It’s like Lowe’s house brand, Kobalt. They make great cordless saws and their batteries are a great price. But they can’t compete with Ryobi and their vast array of innovative tools. I expected to see more variety Kobalt cordless tools when they first came out with this line, but it seems limited to just a few basic things. Fine for a homeowner who doesn’t do much DIY. I’ll continue to use and love the cordless, way better than Ryobi, but that’s about it.

Also, I love my corded Hitachi non-sliding miter saw. Dead square in all ways right out of the box, on sale under $100. A saw I can trust to cut square. Hitachi would be at the top of my list for another miter saw. Hope they don’t mess this up.

I just bought their 12″ slider last month. Best stock blade I’ve ever used (not quite the quality of a really good crosscut blade, but very good for stock), square right out of the box, etc. Quality is excellent, it’s quieter than any other I’ve used, plenty of power, and $200+ cheaper than DeWalt, Bosch, or Delta with similar features.

I agree with the above comments on marketing confusion. I’m sure they just didn’t have a choice though so… For example, a couple of my family members are Hitachi guys, every bit as brand loyal to the green as the red & yellow guys are to their colors. But now if they buy a new tool and it doesn’t say ‘Hitachi’ and if by chance it isn’t Hitachi Green, I’ll be honest and say I don’t know if they’d buy. It sounds completely ridiculous but people are very brand loyal when it comes to tools (and cars) for whatever reason.

Now I could be wrong about them but even to newcomer’s, if DeWalt let’s say took on a different tool line but changed that tool line to DeWalt HPT, 99% of the buying population are going to think it’s a DeWalt. If I didn’t read this site and walked into a Menard’s or something and saw Metabo HPT on a tool, I’m going to think it’s a Metabo tool. It may be the ‘HPT’ version of that Metabo (which I’d probably think to myself meant High Performance Tool) but it’s still a Metabo. I would draw Zero correlation to Hitachi.

I do hope it works for them but I’d almost have to assume there’s a long term strategy to just call everything Metabo at some point. Right now they’d be just trying to bring the Hitachi loyalists over into the fold. I could be wrong though.